Robust tree imports could be all the rage for future holidays

But she wound in a bit too much wire, gobbed on too much papier-mâché. It is as heavy as a tank and will break branches and strip needles off the traditional Scotch pine Christmas tree.

And that rich, childless uncle you never met before is coming for the holidays. He's a trendy slow food dude and wouldn't be impressed by a Scotch pine or Douglas fir anyway.

What to do?

Time to think Nordmann.

The Nordmann fir, a native of mountain ranges near the Black Sea in Turkey, Armenia, Russia and Georgia, has boffo Christmas tree qualities including blunt, nonprickly needles and extremely strong, symmetrical branches for hanging heavy ornaments.

It is still fairly rare at Christmas tree farms in the Mother Lode, but that might be changing soon.

"They are beautiful trees. They have a dark green needle with kind of a blue undertone to the underside. Their branches are very firm and still and nice to hang ornaments off of," said Lynn Wunderlich, a University of California Agricultural Extension farm adviser for a region that includes Tuolumne, Amador, Calaveras and El Dorado counties.

Nordmann fir and the closely related Turkish fir species also have another key advantage: They are less susceptible to some kinds of root rot that can damage or kill other Christmas tree species, especially in the clay soils common in parts of the Sierra Nevada, Wunderlich said.

That's why Wunderlich is studying whether the Nordmann and the Turkish could become a popular crop for Christmas tree farms in the Lode.

"I have a couple of trials going on. I love the trees and so do the growers. And so do the customers," Wunderlich said.

"The challenge with them is they are slow to get growing when you first plant them. They don't like having their roots cut. When you first plant the trees as young trees it will take them a while to recover from the shock of transplanting," Wunderlich said.

(Clip that last paragraph to impress your slow food dude uncle.)

Some large Christmas tree plantations in Oregon ship cut Nordmann fir trees to California lots. Those who want to cut their own will have to seek out the pioneering tree farms in the region that do have Nordmann fir trees of cutable size, including at least two farms in Tuolumne County (Tabletop Christmas Tree Farm in Big Oak Flat and Bramble Hill Farm in Columbia) and one in El Dorado County (Rapetti Farms in Apple Hill).

Some farms may have some Nordmann or Turkish fir planted but are not ready to sell them.

"It's awful slow-growing," said Jane Alto, the owner of Alto Tree Farm on Spink Road near West Point.

Alto says she has exactly one each of the Nordmann and the Turkish. She won them at a raffle during a meeting of the Christmas Tree Growers Association.

"But they are very pretty," Alto said. Curious customers will be able to view - but not cut - those trees at her farm. "I am not selling them."